Seating and tables avialble first come forst serve at 630pm. $5 cash/$6 card cover at the door.

Led by vocalist Cindy Wasserman and singer and guitarist Frank Lee Drennen, Dead Rock West specialize in a kind of jangly west coast alt country that slides into pop and punk territory at times, a bit like a clever cross between the Gram Parsons version of the Byrds and L.A.’s X. Formed in 2002, the band, which also includes multi-instrumentalist Phil Parlapiano (mandolin, organ), drummer Bryan Head, and bassist David J. Carpenter, has a long pedigree drawn from the Southern California rock and roots scene, and individual members have played in a whole host of bands in various configurations, including the Hatchet Brothers, the Troubled Sleepers, Abandoned Pools, the Brothers Figaro, and Loam, a band that still counts Drennen as a key member. Wasserman has toured with Grant Lee Phillips, while Parlapiano has performed with Grant Lee Buffalo, Tracy Chapman, Lucinda Williams, Rod Stewart, and Social Distortion, among others. It’s a lot of proven talent, and Dead Rock West made full use of it for their debut album, Honey and Salt, which was recorded old-school to 2″ tape and then mixed by Grammy-winner Richard Dodd. Eclectic and varied but always in a sort of the Flying Burrito Brothers-meet-X– with-good-production kind of way, and full of gorgeous vocal harmonies from Drennen and Wasserman, the album generated a fair amount of good press when it was released by Populuxe Records in 2007. 2011’s Bright Morning Stars saw the duo tackle a set of spiritually oriented tunes, many of which were traditional, and in 2015 they dropped the spirited It’s Everly Time!, a salute to the Everly Brothers. The duo tapped John Doe to produce their next studio long-player, 2017’s Omnivore-issued More Love.

“San Luis Obispo’s Longstraw came together as a vehicle for the songs of singer guitarists Mike Cross and Colin Prins. After separately leading several bands the two began focusing on their songs together. You can still hear the sound of two singer songwriters with acoustic guitars in hand facing each other though the band has now expanded to a five piece with drums, keyboards and bass. With the full lineup intact Longstraw lifts  the folky songs of Cross/Prins expanding them into twangy soundscapes that leave room for the duo’s gentle harmonies while bringing the right amount of rock’n’roll bang to the proceedings”